GOOD HABITS

Prevent Household Accidents

The thing with accidents and injuries at home is that most of the time they can be prevented. Keeping a watchful eye on your child, inside the home and out, is the best way to ensure their safety. Still, there are some simple things you can do to safeguard your home. Be prepared with our stay-safe checklist:

• Keep cleaning and laundry supplies, medicines and anything considered poisonous out of a child’s reach. Poisoning is responsible for more than half of all home-related unintentional injury deaths, according to the National Safety Counsel. Know the national Poison Control Helpline number and post it visibly in your home: 1-800-222-1222.
• Keep choking hazards and hot or sharp items out of a child’s reach. Keep guns locked away and hide the key so kids can’t find it. Consider a biometric lock such as a fingerprint that is more secure.
• Have a smoke and carbon monoxide detector on every floor of your home and outside bedrooms. It is especially important near furnaces — a broken furnace can leak carbon monoxide from incomplete combustion. Change the batteries once a year. And have a fire extinguisher in your kitchen.
• Never leave young children in the bath unattended.
• Got a pool? Fence it in: Drowning is the second-leading cause of unintentional injury or death for children and adolescents. A bubble cover is not enough — it only keeps the water warm and will collapse under a child’s body weight. A formal cover that is tethered down on both sides is another way to keep your pool safe, and has additional benefits of keeping the water warm and preventing chemicals from evaporating.
• In the U.S., about 140 children die from falls every years. Install safety gates at the tops of stairs, put guards on your windows and make sure your deck or balcony has 4-inch spacing between rails (anything larger is a fall hazzard, according to the AAP).
• Cover wall outlets.
• Have a well-stocked first aid kit in your home and car. Make sure your kids know when and how to call 9-1-1 and what to do in emergency disasters. Post emergency contact information in the kitchen or other common area. Make sure you and anyone looking after your child is trained and certified in CPR and first aid.